Second Sunday of Easter

As soon as we got off our Sunday duds, we continued working our buns off this weekend, mulching the flower gardens, putting up the canopy for the back patio, mowing the back foot-ball field; Chelsea worked on a ten-page report of her recent trip to Washington, D.C.; June did heaps of laundry--all of this "romage" (as Shakespeare would call it, I suppose)--to get ready for our trip tomorrow to Georgia. Right now as I write, we're beginning to pack; then in the morning, sometime around six or seven, we'll head south. Get ready! Here we come!

Mom, Dad, and the Kids are Doing Well!

On "Bright" Tuesday (that's what Lutherans call the days of the first week of Eastertide), the four baby robins broke out of their eggs (good Easter symbolism, chicks!) and started their new life. Both Mom and Dad Robin have been very attentive. During the drenching rains and blustery day of Holy Week, they took turns keeping the eggs warm. Now Mr. and Mrs. Robin have been busy feeding the newbies; and here is proud dad with a morsel of "who-knows-what" for the kids. Inasmuch as June and Andy are driving down to Georgia tomorrow morning, all six of them will probably be gone when we get back. We wish them God's blessings!

Andy gets a watch!

Last night June and Andy attended the 2006 Retirees Dinner; the university gave him the official boot. In the lineup, you can barely see him, last guy on the right in the second row. The food was pretty good. Like everybody else, he got a gaudy-lookng watch. From now on no more paychecks!

Tracie Prater, Andy's Advanced Compositon Student, Wins Award!

At the annual Department of English and Theatre Writing Awards Banquet tonight, Tracie Prater won first place for her essay, "So You Wanna Blog?" in the Undergraduate Advanced Composition category. In Andy's fall semester ENG 301: Advanced Composition class (one of a dozen or so), Tracie--a physics major!--proved herself again and again to be an outstanding student, in a class by herself. As an upper-level writing course, ENG 301 was conducted entirely online, and so you can imagine how wonderful it was for Andy to met Tracie in person for the first time tonight. Tracie's writing sparkles with witful energy; she writes with a well-honed discipline to produce well researched essays, full of perceptive observations, always accurately documented, always gracefully written. What a writer! Here she is, between Andy and the President of the University, Dr. Joanne Glasser. Congratulations, Tracie!

The Easter Vigil

What was begun on Maundy Thursday came to a climax late on Holy Saturday evening as we "watched and waited" for the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ during the Vigil of Easter. We celebrated the climax in the Vigil's profound contrasts between darkness and light, death and life, chaos and order, slavery and freedom.

In the early darkness, after lighting the Pascal Candle from the new fire, we entered the church as the cantor (holding the Pascal Candle) sang, "The light of Christ!" and we echoed, "Thanks be to God!" After the Pascal Candle was placed in its stand, Pastor made the great Easter Proclamation, and again we sang again and again, "Rejoice heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels! Jesus Christ our King is arisen!" We praised the heavenly Father for this holy blessed night that "dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, and brings mourners joy . . . when heaven is wedded to earth and we are reconciled with God!" We prayed that the Morning Star, our Christ, "shed his peaceful light on all creation."

Then it was time for listening to the mighty acts of God as rehearsed in the Hebrew Scriptures. We listened and watched the stories of the creation of the world, the Exodus, the prophetic voice of Isaiah, the dry-bones vision of Ezekial. The second cantor, with her lovely pure singing, led us in praise as we sang psalms to God. At last everyone lifted up his and her voice, lauding God with the Benedicite Omnia Opera ("The Song of the Three Young Men" from the Book of Daniel).

Gathering closer to the holy table, while professing our faith, we remembered our baptisms and the vows we made when we entered our new creation, our exodus, that is, when we were buried with Christ and given new birth with Him in the Resurrection. Blessed again us with water, we confessed our faith in the Apostles' Creed. Then we listened to more of the Word of God: St. Paul spoke to us from his Letter to the Romans; the resurrected Jesus spoke to us in the witness of St. Mark Gospel. With joy we celebrated the Eucharist, glorifying God with the whole company of heavenm singing the Sanctus, remembering all that He has done for us in Christ, thanking the heavenly Father for the sending of His Son, offering ourselves to Him in gratitude and joyful thanksgiving; and then, after asking the Most Holy Spirit to bless and brood over our bread and wine, we received our Lord's gift of Himself in the sharing of Holy Communion. I

In the Vigil the Holy Trinity blessed us with holy proclamation and life-giving sacraments, gifts for and of the Church's worship; June and I left, happy to be baptized, happy to be saved for new life, happy to be among the community of the faithful, happy to welcome once again Jesus into our lives. Like the Pascal Candle, now to be light again and again among all of us who are coming forth from death, we ask God to find the flames of our lives and the lives of all Christians burning, always burning, always giving light.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs! This morning on Maundy Thursday as I sat outside, the mother of these soon-to-be four little robins, all wrapped up as eggs, finally let me sit with her (admittedly she was a bit charry) as together we prayed--she sang her robin songs and I join her with some of the psalms in Morning Prayer. As I watched her, no longer fightened at my presence, I thought of how Jesus, like this robin, "sits upon us" with his grace, giving himself unstintingly so that we might hatch out of our shells into the Resurrection.

Becky Joins the Blog

Hi Mom & Andy,
I finally figured this thing out. Thanks again for use of the lake house this past weekend. We had a wonderful time!

Chelsea runs the hurdles

At yesterday's track meet, Chelsea ran in three events: 100-meter hurdles, the 4 x 100 relay, and the 300-meter hurdles. It was terribly cold running, chilly to bone. In the 100-meter hurdles (see the photo!), she came in second. Just wait until the weather warms up; Chelsea will steam down to first place!

Get "Your Family Blog" Email Alerts!

Enter your email address into the FEEDblitz textbook and you'll receive an email notice whenever someone in the family submits a posting or posts a comment to someone else's. Go ahead, do it!

Renovating the Nashville Mansion

On our way back to Richmond, Amy and Kevin, along with Mary Carol, Jackson, and Hayden, opened up their home for us. We had such a wonderful time, and Mary Carol and Jackson made us some great bookmarks! Although we didn't get to stay very long in Nashville on our way back from Austin to Richmond, we did manage to have Kirk give us a tour of the big house Lora and he have bought and are renovating from cellar floor to rooftop. Both June and I were thrilled to see how well Lora and Kirk have reconfigured their new home, so imaginatively--mod, cool--ah, deeply and daringly designed. Congrats to you both! When do we get to spend a weekend with you?

A Little Garden of Eden

Being with Jesse and Evangeline and seeing the care with which they tend their home and yard was a walk into something much like what the world's first garden must have been like. Tinkling and gonging bells, birds everywhere, fish leaping in ponds, flowers bursting in purples and yellows, and a loving Adam and Eve. Just wonderful to be with them.

A Blessed Couple: Ruth and Gene

Ruth and Gene have been married for well over fifty years, and what a delight it was to be with them. They ooze caring love for one another and for their many children, nearly eighty grandkids altogether! Several years ago the Church blessed their earliler civil marriage, and during the blessing Gene was baptized into the Presence of God and the Body of Christ. As we watched the church at Saint Ignatius the Martyr bless them and Gene's baptism, both June and I sensed how close all of us are in the One Spirit, our One Lord Jesus, and our heavenly Father.

Evangline and Jesse

Everyone treated us like royalty. In Baton Rogue, Louisiana, Evangeline and Jesse made our visit so memorable, one that we will never forget. And Jesse welcomed Andy into their home like a wood duck to its nest. In fact, both Andy and Jesse got up early one morning to watch the momentary flaring rush of such a wood duck from its night's roosting. What a flash of flying! And Evangeline made such wonderful breakfasts for us. We felt like the Queen and King of England!

Joe and Peggy

Just look at these happy faces; they belong to Peggy, Ruth and Gene's daughter, and her husband Joe who's such a Texas Longhorn fan. It was so hard knowing for whom to root in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen: the Longhorns or the Tigers from LSU! When the finals were all over, it was a lot of fun knowing that an SEC team--Florida!--took the title! Sorry, Texas!

On Sunday after Mass, Gene and Ruth took us all out to a wonderful Mexican restaurant where the beer was so good and the mariachi band spirited in their seranades. Many of Ruth and Gene's chidlren were with us, some thirty or more. What a wonderfully festive occasion. You get a sense of it from the smile on June's face!

Three Weeks on the Road: Part I

Oh, do I like this picture. Although I look like the sour wrath of God, I'm as happy as can be. I'm in Austin, TX, at Ruth and Gene's home, where June and I spent such lovely time with June's brother and his wife, Ruth. I found the comfortablest chair for praying the psalms and reading Scripture from The Daily Prayer of the Church. The little oratory that Ruth and Gene built is full of images and candles, all wonderfully Hispanic in theme and style. Here it was wonderful to sing quietly the Magnificat, the Song of Mary just before bedtime. Thank you, Ruth and Gene, for setting aside in your home such a lovely room for prayer.